In recent years, use of mobile communications devices for voice telephone services, e-mail or text messaging services and even multi-media services has become commonplace, among mobile professionals and throughout the more general consumer population. Mobile service provided through public cellular or Persona Communication Service (“PCS”) type networks, particularly for voice telephone service, has become virtually ubiquitous across much of the world.
A user of the mobile device usually enters a telephone number into the mobile device or retrieves a number from a contact list stored in the device to initiate a call or a message transmission to a particular destination. Today, mobile stations often capture a callers' number from the caller ID data for an incoming call. The caller's number maybe used for a return call or added to the contact list.
Dialing patterns are country specific and apply whether the user is dialing from a mobile device or from a landline. The number of digits in a telephone number may also vary between countries. As such, it is important for the mobile user to dial or select a destination number in a correct dialing pattern as the mobile user roams from one country to another country.
For example, if the mobile user has its home network in United States and wishes to reach another subscriber within the same home network, the user may enter the National Direct Dial (“NDD”) code of the United States (e.g., 1) followed by the phone number of the other user. For another example, if the same mobile user wishes to reach another subscriber within the network of another country, the user may have to dial the International Direct Dial (“IDD”) code (e.g., 011) of the United States followed by the country code associated with the other user and the telephone number of the user. As such, as mobile users roam into different networks, they need to be continuously aware of the IDD code of the country in which they are located and the relevant country codes.
Similarly, for placing a return call to a received international number, the user will have to separate a prefix consisting of an international call indicator, a country code and a city code from the calling party number and then manually key in the IDD, the country code, the city code and the calling party number in order for the return call to be properly handled by the network. However, as the user roams between countries, the captured numbers may not be in proper form for call back.
To illustrate, when a call is received on a wireless handset, the calling party number is automatically stored in a special memory space in the handset. This memory space is visible to the handset user through a special feature, usually called “Received Calls.” The received calls are visible to the user when a special window is invoked by the user through the “Received Calls” graphical user interface. This is usually a read or execute interface. The Execute interface provides a call back functionality whereby the user can select a particular calling party number and then indicate to the device to place a call to that number. For a call in the user's home country, for example, the call will be placed properly if the network is not busy and the calling party number and the place at which the call was received are in the same country. Unfortunately, if the original call is placed from one country and the call is received in another country, then the return call back will not go through. The number from the recent call list will not include all the necessary data. To place the return call properly, the user will have to separate a prefix consisting of an international call indicator, a country code and a city code from the calling party number and then manually key in the IDD, the country code, the city code and the calling party number in order for the return call to be properly handled by the network.
Therefore, there is need for a method that automates the manual effort that would otherwise be required of the user for international call backs. The instant application describes such method.